Machine and equipment assets, generally, are engineered to perform particular tasks as part of a business process. For example, assets can include, among other things and without limitation, industrial manufacturing equipment on a production line, drilling equipment for use in mining operations, wind turbines that generate electricity on a wind farm, transportation vehicles, and the like. As another example, assets may include healthcare machines and equipment that aid in diagnosing patients such as imaging devices (e.g., X-ray or MRI systems), monitoring devices, and the like. The design and implementation of these assets often takes into account both the physics of the task at hand, as well as the environment in which such assets are configured to operate.
Low-level software and hardware-based controllers have long been used to drive machine and equipment assets. However, the rise of inexpensive cloud computing, increase in sensor capabilities, decrease in sensor costs, and the proliferation of mobile technologies have generated new opportunities for creating novel industrial and healthcare based assets with improved sensing technology and which are capable of transmitting data that can then be distributed throughout a network. As a consequence, there are new opportunities to enhance the business value of some assets through the use of novel industrial-focused hardware and software.
To prevent infection, human beings have developed various environmental precautions (e.g., public health programs, clean water etc.) as well as external physical protection mechanisms (e.g., washing hands, protective clothing etc.). Despite these protections in place, various pathogens are able to attack the human body. In response, biological structures of a person's immune system may constantly defend against these pathogens to keep the body functioning. In a similar fashion, to protect industrial control systems, information technology mechanisms (e.g., anti-virus software, trusted boot, etc.) has been developed as well as operational technology mechanisms (e.g., Opshield, SecurityST, etc.) have been developed.
However, information technology and operational technology protection mechanisms are inadequate. As a result, cyber threats continue to grow in number and sophistication. Attackers have shown the ability to find and exploit residual faults and use them to formulate cyber-attacks. Most software systems in use today run substantially similar software. As a result, a successful cyber-attack can bring down a large number of installations running similar software. Furthermore, as more software is made available (e.g., through the cloud), the situation can only get worse. Accordingly, what is needed is a better method for protecting control systems against cyber-attacks.